Winning With Engaged Teams

Yesterday evening when I caught up with some old friends from university for a drink we had a highly stimulating (and emotional) discussion about the Super Bowl... and team engagement: Its significant relevance for organizations, its drivers, and its impact on employee and business performance.

There was a strong agreement that in most organizations – and although people spend a substantial part of their lives working - a vast majority of teams and employees are not engaged at all. And as a result such organizations do not perform at their best.

Let me share with you the main points we touched upon:

THE CHALLENGE (AND OPPORTUNITY) IS HUGE

According to Gallup′s State of the Global Workplace study (covers 142 countries), only 13% of employees worldwide are engaged at work. In other words, only about one in eight workers are psychologically committed to their jobs and likely to be making positive contributions to their organizations. The bulk of employees worldwide - 63% - are "not engaged," meaning they lack motivation and are less likely to invest discretionary effort in organizational goals or outcomes. And 24% are "actively disengaged," indicating they are unhappy and unproductive at work and liable to spread negativity to coworkers.

WHAT IS EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Employee engagement describes the relationship between an organization and its employees. An "engaged employee" is one who is fully involved in and enthusiastic about his or her work. An engaged employee takes pride in his work, is committed, usually exceeds duty′s call, and often takes positive action to strengthen the organization′s reputation and interests. He′s emotionally connected with the organization and wants it to succeed.

Numerous studies show that an organization with "high" employee engagement – and all else being equal – is likely to outperform those with "low" employee engagement. For example Gallup′s reserach notes that work units in the top 25% of their engagement database have considerably higher productivity and profitability ratings combined with less turnover and absenteeism.

It is well known that employee engagement and positive business outcomes are correlated. The question often was, however, if engagement would truly lead to better outcomes. Or would successful companies just have more engaged employees (chicken-and-egg-problem)? Or does it work in both directions? A recent study published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology shows that organizational commitment has more impact on business performance than vice versa.

BUILDING A CULTURE OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

Let′s have a look at how leaders can raise the bar on team and employee engagement to increase workplace engagement and to achieve better results:

Understand What Your Employees Think And Want
Use e.g. employee engagement surveys or company discussion boards to get an understanding about what your team members think and where the bottlenecks are. Fix a maximum of 2-3 issues at the same time. Focus on "low hanging fruits“ which simultaneously make a big difference.

Build A Trust Culture
Trust is the base of employee engagement. Innovation, transparency, cooperation, etc. depend on trust. Treat each employee as a valuable member of your team, give them the autonomy to make decisions, keep promises, and be reliable.

Practice Open Communication
Employees should understand what the company′s mission and objectives are and what they’re expected to achieve. Listen to employee feedback and encourage it. Get the teams in on strategies and explain to them their roles. Then they will view themselves as an important, and crucial piece of the puzzle.

Provide Clear Career Paths
You should support career path development. For example by providing career development and training plans, coaching, shadowing, mentoring, etc. Assist employees to develop professional goals and to learn from colleagues. Show commitment to growth at all levels, and not just senior leaders. Make sure that there exist regular feedback loops between peers, and very importantly, between employee and boss.

Demonstrate Appreciation For Contributions
Take employee engagement seriously by thanking employees, whether that’s through monetary rewards, company awards, promotion, strategic project responsibilities, or other incentives.

Inspire Employees Beyond Turnover
People want to work for great and visionary companies. Companies led by managers and leaders who look beyond facts and figures. Employees are motivated by inspirational and honest leadership. You could (and should) engage in social interactions outside work like community support projects. This is a splendid way to strengthen relationships and adds an enjoyable social dimension to work. By the way, no harm at all, if you try making your organization a fun place to work!

Communicate Your Employee Focus
If you are a fun and cool place to work for then make sure people know about it. A strong employment brand that offers clarity on the organization culture and its values ensures that the right people are attracted.

CLOSING REMARKS

Engaged Employees are emotionally involved, have a higher identity level with their organization, work longer in the same company, are more productive and strive to deliver better customer service. Both usually lead to better customer satisfaction and create unique customer experiences. As a result customer loyalty goes up. The bottom line are higher sales and better profit margins.

Now, it′s Your turn: I′d love to know what Employee Engagement does mean to You. Which strategies and tactics are working for You? Any other thoughts?

Let us know in the comments here!

Best regards,

Andreas von der Heydt

*****

Andreas von der Heydt is the Head and Director of Kindle Content at Amazon in Germany. Before that he held various senior management positions at Amazon and L'Oréal. He's a leadership expert and management coach. He also founded Consumer Goods Club. Andreas worked and lived in Europe, Australia, the U.S. and Asia. Andreas enjoys blogging as a private person here on LinkedIn about various exciting topics. His latest book is about what makes a future leader. All statements made, opinions expressed, etc. in his articles only reflect his personal opinion.

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